Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) Licence
It is an offence to fail to license an HMO, and landlords can be prosecuted and fined up to £20,000 for failing to license.
You can apply for a new licence, renew an existing licence or change your licence online:
HMO Licence Fees
We have a two part licensing fee structure for HMO Licences.
The initial fee required for a valid application covers the cost of issuing the licence. The remaining fee due at issue of the licence is to cover the further cost of licencing the scheme and will be invoiced at the time that the proposal to issue a licence is served (i.e. at the point that the draft of the licence is sent to the applicant).
Applicants can choose to pay the full amount with the initial application and receive a discount as the council will not then have the cost to invoice and process the second payment.
The basic HMO licence fee is based on a standard five bedroom HMO. For HMO's with additional bedrooms there is an additional fee per room to be added.
Applications for renewals must be received before the expiry of the existing HMO licence. Applications received after the expiry date will be treated as a new application with the appropriate increased fee.
You can find the latest charges on the Environmental Health Fees & Charges page.
Public Register
We maintain a Public Register of HMO's that have been licensed.
East Herts Council does not condone direct marketing undertaken by third parties accessing this information. The individuals or organisations mentioned within this register have not given consent for such use and by using the information for direct marketing purposes third parties could find themselves in breach of data protection legislation.
If you are a HMO landlord and you receive unsolicited direct marketing from agencies, please contact them directly and ask them to stop.
Please see our page on the Re-use of Council Information for further information.
HMO Register April 2025 - There are several properties in the process of renewing their HMO licence which do not appear on the current register.
